Crime and Punishment in Colombia

During the 1990s, Colombia was considered one of the most violent countries in the world. Banditry, communist guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels together with a sophisticated and versatile organized crime drew a violent landscape of murder. Although national homicide rate has fallen from 1995, Colombia remains a violent country. Scholars have tried to identify the causes of this entrenched and inveterate violence, without finding a definite answer. Practitioners have proposed few citizen security programs, often withering away and erratic, showing that there is no real policy with a strong leadership remaining. In contrast, the Colombian police force has played a pivotal role in dismantling numbers of delinquency networks and contributing to crime reduction.